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Covestro launches digitalized lifecycle-assessment tool for over 50,000 products
Covestro AG (Leverkusen, Germany) has announced a new digitalization strategy that is focusing on more data-centric business management to achieve digital transformation and to offer its customers transparency for its products. Covestro's climate impact from the manufacture of its products…
Stamicarbon awarded contract to upgrade urea plant in China
MAIRE S.p.A. (Milan) announced that NEXTCHEM, through its subsidiary Stamicarbon, the nitrogen fertilizer technology licensor, has been selected to provide the Process Design Package to upgrade the Hulunbeier New Gold Chemical Co., Ltd.’s urea plant in Hulunbuir (China), leveraging on…
New sustainable materials from recycled carbon nanotubes
Recycling materials, such as plastics and metals, is an attractive, but challenging path toward sustainable material manufacture. Now, researchers have made a discovery that may have far-reaching implications in material manufacture by positioning carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers as a sustainable…
Creating ultrathin gold films with the largest continuous area
Thin gold films offer a broad range of benefits for electronics due to their high electrical conductivity and transparency. Current manufacturing methods are unable to achieve gold films thinner than 10 nm, and are also limited in the area and…
High-performance drive units with cybersecurity built in
Sinamics G220 (photo) is a new multi-purpose, adjustable-speed drive that features built-in technology to reduce harmonics by up to 97% — without the need for an a.c. line reactor or d.c. choke. Sinamics G220 drives have an integrated web server…
Flow chemistry yields a more sustainable route to isocyanates
The wide range of performance properties of polyurethane foams makes them essential in many consumer goods. Thus, there is much effort going into creating a more environmentally friendly production process for polyurethane’s main building blocks, polyols and isocyanates. While much…
Carbon-neutral calcium carbonate process uses emissions from steel-making plant
Construction is imminent for a carbon-capture project aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from steel production while producing carbon-neutral calcium carbonate. At the U.S. Steel (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.ussteel.com) manufacturing facility in Gary, Ind., a carbon-capture system designed by CarbonFree (San Antonio,…
These dust-control fans are now ATEX certified
This company has recently secured full ATEX Zone 22 certifications for its EX200 and EX205 2-hp dust-control fans (photo). These fans are designed explicitly to provide proactive protection against fugitive combustible dust in hard-to-reach areas, enabling users to operate more…
AI’s potential in the CPI
One of the aspects of my job that I really enjoy is keeping in touch with new and advanced technologies emerging from the chemical process industries (CPI) — an interest that traces back to my roots as an R&D engineer.…
Pilot project planned for thermocatalytic ethanol-to-butene process
In December 2024, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL; Richland, Wash.; www.pnnl.gov) announced a three-year collaborative project with vehicle-tire manufacturer Bridgestone (Tokyo, Japan; www.bridgestone.com) to scale up a thermocatalytic process for converting renewably derived ethanol to n-butene. Conventionally, n-butene is…